CLEVELAND — Editor's note: the video in the player above is from the Thursday, May 19, 2022, episode of The Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show.
Last week, Jarvis Landry found a new home when he agreed to a one-year contract with the New Orleans Saints.
But while Landry's future is in the Big Easy, we now have more insight into what led to the five-time Pro Bowl wide receiver's departure from the Cleveland Browns.
Appearing on a Twitter Spaces with @Pchopz_ on Thursday, Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network discussed the breakup between the Browns and Landry. In doing so, the NFL insider said that it was his understanding that the LSU product had the opportunity to return to Cleveland on a lower salary than the $16 million he had been owed by the Browns in 2022 prior to his release, but ultimately opted to explore the free-agent market.
"Jarvis had ample opportunity to come back to the Browns," Rapoport said. "When he was released, it was my understanding that he was pushing for that, to be a free agent. Turned down their offer and was pushing to be a free agent, so basically asking to be cut. Had he hung around, I think their original deal essentially turned it into a one-year pay cut deal. I think that still would have been available after Deshaun Watson gets traded [to the Browns] and he would probably still be there."
Cleveland's circumstances, however, changed when the Browns used a third-round pick on Purdue wide receiver David Bell in the 2022 NFL Draft.
"They basically replaced him," Rapoport said of the Browns and Landry. "That was kind of it."
As a result, Landry -- a Louisiana native -- finds himself heading to the Saints on an incentive-laden one-year deal. Cleveland, meanwhile, appears poised to lean on Amari Cooper, Donovan Peoples-Jones, Anthony Schwartz and Bell as Watson's primary wide receivers.